An apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a transducer to transform a load in the housing to an electric current, upon receipt of a load exceeding a load threshold. The apparatus further comprises a light source coupled to the transducer to emit light upon receiving the electric current.

A sensor (10) is used for detecting at least one edge of at least one product web (1) running in a run direction (2). The sensor (10) has active elements (11), which are arranged adjacent to one another and are formed by transmitters (12) and receivers (13). In this case, the transmitters (12) can emit waves (14) which are received by the receivers (13). The product web (1) is provided for influencing the waves (14) in the radiation path between the transmitters (12) and receivers (13). In this case, a first (21, 31) and second (22, 32) of the active elements (11) are adjacent and have a mutual first spacing (41). The second (22, 32) and a third (23, 33) of the active elements (11) are also adjacent to one another and have a second spacing (42), which corresponds to at least 1.2 times the first spacing (41).

A displacement amount calculation part in a base material processing apparatus calculates the degree of matching between an upstream data section and a downstream data section included in a first and a second detection results, which indicate time-varying changes in the positions of an edge of a base material in the width direction at an upstream and a downstream detection positions. This calculation uses calculation results obtained by sequentially calculating the degrees of matching between sub-data sections in the upstream data section and downstream sub-data sections in the downstream data section. This reduces the amount of computation and enables highly accurate detection of the amount of displacement of the base material in the transport direction on the basis of an identification result of the downstream data section that is highly matched with the upstream data section.

A displacement amount calculation part in a base material processing apparatus calculates the degree of matching between an upstream data section and a downstream data section included in an upstream and a downstream detection results, which indicate time-varying changes in the positions of an edge of the base material in the width direction at an upstream and a downstream detection positions. This calculation uses the results of comparison between signals in a predetermined frequency band extracted from the upstream detection result and signals in the predetermined frequency band extracted from the downstream detection result. Accordingly, a downstream data section that is highly matched with the upstream data section can be identified with high accuracy, and the amount of displacement of the base material in the transport direction can be detected with high accuracy on the basis of an identification result.

A base material processing apparatus includes a first edge sensor, a second edge sensor, and a displacement amount calculation part. The first edge sensor acquires a first detection result (R1) by detecting the position of an edge of a base material in the width direction at a first detection position. The second edge sensor acquires a second detection result (R2) by detecting the position of the edge of the base material in the width direction at a second detection position. The displacement amount calculation part calculates the amount of displacement in the position of the base material in the transport direction on the basis of the first detection result (R1) and the second detection result (R2). Accordingly, the amount of displacement in the position of the base material in the transport direction can be detected without depending on images such as register marks.

A meandering control device includes: a detector configured to detect a position of an edge of a web being conveyed in a width direction of the web; a corrector configured to correct a position of the web being conveyed in the width direction; and a controller including a digital filter configured to perform filtering on a position signal indicating the position of the edge detected by the detector to attenuate a noise component. The controller is configured to drive the corrector to correct the position of the web in the width direction based on the position signal after the filtering.

A base material processing apparatus includes a first edge sensor, a second edge sensor, and a displacement amount calculation part. The first edge sensor acquires a first detection result (R1) by detecting the position of an edge of a base material in the width direction at a first detection position. The second edge sensor acquires a second detection result (R2) by detecting the position of the edge of the base material in the width direction at a second detection position. The displacement amount calculation part calculates the amount of displacement in the position of the base material in the transport direction on the basis of the first detection result (R1) and the second detection result (R2). Accordingly, the amount of displacement in the position of the base material in the transport direction can be detected without depending on images such as register marks.

A displacement amount calculation part in a base material processing apparatus calculates the degree of matching between an upstream data section and a downstream data section included in a first and a second detection results, which indicate time-varying changes in the positions of an edge of a base material in the width direction at an upstream and a downstream detection positions. This calculation uses calculation results obtained by sequentially calculating the degrees of matching between sub-data sections in the upstream data section and downstream sub-data sections in the downstream data section. This reduces the amount of computation and enables highly accurate detection of the amount of displacement of the base material in the transport direction on the basis of an identification result of the downstream data section that is highly matched with the upstream data section.

A displacement amount calculation part in a base material processing apparatus calculates the degree of matching between an upstream data section and a downstream data section included in an upstream and a downstream detection results, which indicate time-varying changes in the positions of an edge of the base material in the width direction at an upstream and a downstream detection positions. This calculation uses the results of comparison between signals in a predetermined frequency band extracted from the upstream detection result and signals in the predetermined frequency band extracted from the downstream detection result. Accordingly, a downstream data section that is highly matched with the upstream data section can be identified with high accuracy, and the amount of displacement of the base material in the transport direction can be detected with high accuracy on the basis of an identification result.

In a method and a device for position detection of a material web (2), the position of the material web (2) is determined on the basis of a marking (13) provided thereon. This marking (13) is detected by a first sensor (4), which emits a position signal (33) proportional to the position of the marking (13). The material web (2) is furthermore detected by a second sensor (5), which emits a signal proportional to the velocity of the material web (2) transversely to the movement direction (8). An output signal (7), which represents position-proportional values of the material web (2) even when the position signal (33) fails, is then calculated from the velocity signal (54) and the position signal (33).